Mussels to Write Home About

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Mussels. A brilliantly prepared bowl of mussels can almost make me cry (in fact I am having a difficult time focusing on writing this; now I want one so bad).

A few months ago we were in Sicily for vacation and ate our way from Catania, down to Noto, through Modica, Agrigento, up to Trapani and out of Palermo. I could happily gobble down any of the island's star players - cannolo, bottarga, granita, caponata, heaping helpings of pasta with clams - but it is the mussels we were lovingly led to in our final days that come to me now when I dream of Sicily.

It would be fair to say that we were a bit resistant to take our lovely B&B owner's advice on where to dine. Other owners had more times than not suggested places that were good, but always missing a note or two. After a highly disappointing dinner at a restaurant that the owners had specifically told us to avoid (tsk! tsk!), we came home with our tails between our legs and agreed to try out their favorite.

Even if you had the good fortune to just happen upon it, La Piazzetta is not the sort of place you'd be inspired to try out without a previous recommendation. It's located on a dark street in the suburbs of Trapani (i.e. seemingly a bit sketchy) and at first glance just seems to be another neighborhood pizzeria. But if you take a second to look around, you will quickly notice that the place is filled to the gills even on week nights.

We came the first night for the mussels. And the second. And had we not had a flight home on the third, we would have come back for them again. Never mind that the 9 Euro antipasto is more than enough to fill two hollow, expectant tummies beyond satisfaction, but these seriously were the best mussels I had ever eaten. First the efficient waiters plunk down two loaves of gorgeous bread, which in and of itself is somewhat shocking given that gorgeous (or even good if we're being honest) bread is hard to come by in Italy. Then comes the overflowing pot of deliciousness, and when it arrives your conscious self wants to go slowly and savor the little guys, but somehow you dive in and what seems like minutes later (and probably is) you emerge to an empty pot, practically wiped clean of any broth, thanks to the two, now gone, loaves of bread.

We never succeeded in saving room for other dishes, but if the mussels are a measure of La Piazzetta's power, then the huge platters of pasta and the wood oven pizzas are sure to inspire longingly hungry remembrances of Trapani.


La Piazzetta
Piazza Salinagrande
Trapani, Sicily
923 867161

* Blame the mussels. I didn't take a photo, so instead offer up views of nearby Favignana to tempt more than just your palate.